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Racism on trial : the Chicano fight for justice

"Ian Haney Lopez tells the compelling story of the Chicano movement in Los Angeles by following two criminal trials, including one arising from the student walkouts. He demonstrates how racial prejudice led to police brutality and judicial discrimination that in turn spurred Chicano militancy. He also shows that legal violence helped to convince Chicano activists that they were nonwhite, thereby encouraging their use of racial ideas to redefine their aspirations, culture, and selves. In a ground-breaking advance that further connects legal racism and racial politics, Haney Lopez describes how race functions as "common sense," a set of ideas that we take for granted in our daily lives. This racial common sense, Haney Lopez argues, largely explains why racism and racial affiliation persist today."--Jacket.Read more...

Abstract:

By tracing the fluid position of Mexican-Americans on the divide between white and non-white, describing the role of legal violence in producing racial identities, and detailing the commonsense nature of race, Haney Lopez offers a potentially liberating way to rethink race in the US.Read more...

Reviews

Editorial reviews

Publisher Synopsis

"Racism on Trial" is a fascinating and thought-provoking study that adds much to our understanding of the Chicano movement and points to the centrality of race in America. By arguing that racism is common sense, Haney Lopez provides a useful model that can be applied to American history as a whole and in so doing redirect our notions of the construction of race and racism in the United States...[A] fine book that will have a profound influence on the study of legal, ethnic, and American history for years to come.--Ernesto Chavez"American Journal of Legal History" (10/01/2005)Read more...

""Ian Haney Lopez tells the compelling story of the Chicano movement in Los Angeles by following two criminal trials, including one arising from the student walkouts. He demonstrates how racial prejudice led to police brutality and judicial discrimination that in turn spurred Chicano militancy. He also shows that legal violence helped to convince Chicano activists that they were nonwhite, thereby encouraging their use of racial ideas to redefine their aspirations, culture, and selves. In a ground-breaking advance that further connects legal racism and racial politics, Haney Lopez describes how race functions as "common sense," a set of ideas that we take for granted in our daily lives. This racial common sense, Haney Lopez argues, largely explains why racism and racial affiliation persist today."--Jacket."